Japanese houses Archives

Large eaves and a metal-mesh canopy that will eventually be covered with plants help to shade the interiors of this concrete house on Japan’s Okinawa Island. Osaka-based studio Ryuichi Ashizawa Architects designed the house called Ma of Wind for a plot in a residential area southwest of the 14th-century Shuri Castle, on the island in the

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Suzuki Architects combines a home and shop at Gré Square House

Large openings in the corrugated-metal facades of this boxy building in Shizuoka, Japan, frame views of the neighbourhood from a shop on the ground floor and residence above. Tokyo studio Suzuki Architects designed Gré Square House for a client who runs a business selling clothes and other products made from natural materials. The building’s ground

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Interlocking indoor and outdoor levels bring Japanese house close to nature

For this lakeside house in Japan, Tokyo-based studio Sugawaradaisuke used five interlocking levels to create multiple viewing platforms both inside and outside the property. Rather than a traditional two-storey structure, the architecture practice designed a multi-level layout for the cottage, that gives the occupants multiple perspectives of the surrounding forest. The house, called called Nojiri-ko Nature Platforms, sits

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Timber volumes form live-work spaces for artist and architect in rural Japan

Japanese architect Makoto Suzuki has designed his own live-work space as a series of interlocking timber-clad buildings near Sapporo on Hokkaido island. Suzuki created his own living and working spaces, along with an office for his wife, a weekend retreat for his father, and an artist’s studio for sculptor Takenobu Igarashi. The exterior of each of the

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Platforms function as tables and shelves inside Tato Architects’ House in Miyamoto

Japanese studio Tato Architects designed the interior of this house in Osaka as a single room containing angular platforms that perform multiple functions and are connected by a spiralling sequence of wooden steps. Tato Architects developed the house for a family of three who wanted a seamlessly connected interior space that facilitates a stronger connection between its occupants.

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Deceptively industrial facade conceals bright contemporary home in Japan

This house in Japan’s Tokushima prefecture appears as a nondescript industrial unit from the road, but inside architecture practice CAPD has hidden a bright, high-ceilinged family home. The Japanese studio designed the 137-square-metre residence to run almost the full length of the plot, with the gabled roof interrupted to create a courtyard and first floor balcony.

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Hiiragi’s House is a Japanese home arranged around a courtyard and old tree

Japanese architect Takashi Okuno designed this house with a U-shaped plan, to ensure every room has a view of the tree in the central courtyard. Located in Japan’s Ehime Prefecture, Hiiragi’s House sits on a plot containing a tree that has been nurtured by several generations of the owner’s family. Okuno wanted the new house to emphasise the importance

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Watch Bêka & Lemoine’s movie Moriyama-San, about the owner of Ryue Nishizawa’s Moriyama House

The film made by Ila Bêka and Louise Lemoine about the occupant of Ryue Nishizawa’s seminal Moriyama House is now available to watch on Dezeen in full – but only for a limited time! Moriyama-San is an hour-long documentary about Yasuo Moriyama, the “urban hermit” who lives inside a house built by one of the

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House with “margin space” helps relocating city-dwellers adjust to life in rural Japan

To encourage the occupants of this house to socialise with their neighbours, Japanese architect Takanori Ineyama added a patio deck, a first-floor balcony and a large bay window to the building’s facade. Ineyama designed Tab House for a young family who recently moved out of Tokyo, in favour of a more rural setting in Yamanashi Prefecture.

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Hearth Architects designs family house in Shiga with tree-planted atrium

This family house in Japan’s Shiga prefecture was designed by local studio Hearth Architects around an indoor garden, which is planted with a tree that extends towards a skylight. Kyomachi House is located in Koga, a city in the southern part of the Shiga Prefecture. The residence is set within the former boundary of the town of Minakuchi,

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Jun Igarashi Architects uses loophole in Japanese planning to equip Hokkaido house for snowy winters

Jun Igarashi Architects found a work-around in Japanese building code to create this house on Hokkaido’s southwest coast, which features a larger than average roof to protect a pair of patios from snowfall. Winters in Hokkaido, Japan’s northernmost island, are renowned for their snowfall. Snow-sports enthusiasts from around the world flock to experience the waist-deep powder that typically blankets

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Holiday home by Masato Sekiya cantilevers over a river bank in Nara Prefecture

by Ali Morris

Masato Sekiya’s firm Planet Creations has completed a concrete weekend house, which cantilevers six metres over a rocky ledge in Japan’s Omine mountain range. Located in Tenkawa village, 600 metres above sea level, the site is surrounded by the Omine mountain range. The house, which was designed as a holiday villa for a doctor and his wife, protrude out from the

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Gap House is a Japanese home that makes the most of every inch

This house by Japanese office MUU Store Design Studio has a footprint of just 60 square metres. Called Gap House, the property slots into a tight space between two older buildings, in a residential area fronting Japan’s Sagami Bay. Due to the limited space available, MUU Store Design Studio designed it to be as space-efficient as

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Cohta Asano builds his new Fukushima home as a cluster of nine cuboids

The 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Japan was the first in a series of grave events that prompted Fukushima-based architect Cohta Asano to develop the complex design for his new home. Made of up nine overlapping cuboids, of all different sizes and proportions, the house has little in common with the other residential properties in Fukushima, many

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Japanese house by Kouichi Kimura includes white-tiled courtyard for yoga

A chimney-like tower covered in white tiles rises in the courtyard of this house in Shiga, Japan, which architect Kouichi Kimura has designed for the owner to host yoga classes. Located away from a busy main road, the two-storey residence combines a large block with a smaller one that appears to be slotted on top. There are no windows

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Chop + Archi cuts triangular lightwells into corners of house in Tokyo

Japanese architecture studio Chop + Archi has used trio of courtyards to make the most of the sharp “dead space” corners of this house, located on an almost triangular plot in Tokyo. Situated on a south-eastern corner plot in a dense residential area in Tokyo’s Setagaya ward, Kamiuma House provides the home for a couple and

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Apollo Architects’ minimal renovation aims to keep the atmosphere of an old family home in Tokyo

Rooflights, pale tiles and glossy flooring are among the tweaks that Apollo Architects & Associates made to a family home in Toyko to give it a light-filled living, kitchen and dining room. The Japanese architects were tasked with renovating the two-storey residence for a client whose father had built the house over 30 years ago. It is located in a suburban area of Tokyo called Ōta,

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Skylights and slatted floors bring daylight into 2.5-metre-wide house in Japan

Japanese studio FujiwaraMuro Architects has completed an exceptionally narrow timber house in Kobe, featuring an atrium that allows daylight to reach each of its levels. The site FujiwaraMuro Architects was given to work with was just 22 square metres, and flanked on either side by existing residential buildings. The studio had experience of dealing with the restricted sites common in many Japanese

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Galvanised steel panels cover irregularly stacked volumes of Japanese townhouse

Yuichi Yoshida & Associates has completed a house in the suburbs of the Japanese city of Kanazawa with pared-back interiors and an irregularly layered structure that challenges the area’s housing typology. Set back from the roadside, the unconventional house comprises two steel-clad volumes set askew on a concrete base. The architects chose galvanised steel cladding for it ability

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Timber frame projects into rooms and stairwell of Alphaville’s compact Kyoto home

The timber structure of this house in Kyoto by Japanese studio Alphaville pokes through into the interior spaces, which were designed to optimise the dimensions of a narrow site. The property is located in a residential area close to the city’s Imperial Palace, where housing lots are typically narrow and elongated so that private yards can be incorporated at the

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ISSHO Architects uses timber frames to create typhoon-resistant house on a tropical island

A wooden framework extending radially towards the edges of this house in Japan’s Okinawa region ensures views in all directions through external walls made entirely of glass. Tokyo studio ISSHO Architects designed the Shinminka house for a plot surrounded by trees and vegetation in Motobu, on the northern part of Okinawa Island. The architects sought to develop

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Edmund Sumner reveals archive photographs of Ryue Nishizawa’s seminal Moriyama House

Photographer Edmund Sumner has revealed decade-old images of one of Ryue Nishizawa’s most famous buildings, Moriyama House – a full-size model of which was recently installed inside London’s Barbican. After visiting the Barbican’s “highly impressive” exhibition The Japanese House: Architecture and Life after 1945, which includes a full-size model of the Tokyo house, Sumner dug out his photographs from when the building was first completed

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Steel chain curtains cover skinny Osaka house by FujiwaraMuro Architects

Metal curtains can be drawn across the windows of this three-and-a-half-metre-wide house in Osaka by FujiwaraMuro Architects, which features a split-level layout with multiple staircases. The local architects were commissioned to design a skinny house to replace a demolished building in the commercial centre of Honshu, which is known for its modern architecture. The tightly packed site and its urban

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Bright white living spaces overhang gallery in top-heavy Tokyo house by Form

Japanese studio Form designed this top-heavy home for a family in Tokyo, placing their living spaces in an elevated volume that overhangs a gallery for its apron-designer owner. The Kusatsu-based studio was asked to create the small house to meet the demands of family life, but also those of the client, who designs aprons. Covered in white render, Adorable House hosts a gallery and

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Black corrugated metal encases loft-inspired interiors of Tokyo house by TakaTina

American studio TakaTina has created a stark family home on the outskirts of Tokyo, featuring bright white interiors inspired by the client’s previous Brooklyn loft apartment and an inky black exterior. The New York based architects, husband-and-wife team Takaaki and Christina Kawabata, were commissioned to design the house for a family of four in a residential area west of the Japanese

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Competition: win a book showcasing 50 new Japanese houses

by Jessica Jones

Dezeen is giving away five copies of The Japanese House Reinvented by Philip Jodidio, a book featuring 50 houses that highlight Japan’s current residential trends. The book showcases properties from the last five years, designed by architects ranging from Pritzker Prize-winners to recent graduates. Among the homes featured are designs by Koji Tsutsui, Tadao Ando and Shigeru Ban. Architectural trends in materials and technology

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House in Mukainada is a Hiroshima home that straddles a circular path

Japanese studio FujiwaraMuro Architects has completed a house in Hiroshima, featuring a circular concrete and wood path that loops through both the building and the garden. FujiwaraMuro Architects designed House in Mukainada for an elderly couple who wanted a home that could accommodate their passion for gardening. Located in the city’s Mukainada neighbourhood, the building is also

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Arii Arie Architects uses angled windows to create tilted roofs for Japanese house extension

Tokyo-based Arii Arie Architects has added a series of corrugated-metal blocks to a 1980s house in central Japan, and used wooden beams and angular windows to prop up their mono-pitched roofs. Arii Irie Architects were tasked by a middle-aged couple to design a new house next to their current residence, which was built in 1983. The clients decided to keep their old

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Cubo Design Architect pairs blackened wood with concrete for house in coastal Japanese city

An angular, blackened wood structure sits atop two concrete blocks to form this house in Japan’s Kanagawa Prefecture, designed by Cubo Design Architect. Located in the city of Odawara, in the vicinity of a 15th century castle, Hafye is designed to create the feeling of being suspended in mid-air – hence the top-heavy design. This unusual form, described by locally based Cubo Design Architect as animal-like,

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House in a Japanese forest features secluded courtyards framing views of trees and sky

Architects Megumi Matsubara and Hiroi Ariyama arranged this house in the forest near Karuizawa around five courtyards to provide views of vegetation both inside and outside the building. Matsubara teamed up with Ariyama of Tokyo studio Assistant to design the guest house and private gallery for an art collector in Nagano Prefecture. The single-storey residence is situated in a clearing

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Full-size houses by Ryue Nishizawa and Terunobu Fujimori built inside Japanese House exhibition at Barbican

One of the best-known projects of SANAA co-founder Ryue Nishizawa has been recreated inside London’s Barbican as part of an exhibition about Japanese housing, along with a charred timber teahouse by Terunobu Fujimori. The Japanese House: Architecture and Life after 1945 looks at the experimental architecture that emerged in Japan after the second world war, and how it has developed up

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Stripped-back holiday chalet by Florian Busch is set at the foot of Mount Yōtei in Japan

Positioned at the base of a dormant volcano on Japan’s Hokkaido Island, this simple gabled holiday home by Florian Busch Architects is perfectly positioned for skiers. Tokyo-based Florian Busch Architects designed the 180-square-metre dwelling for a wooded spot on the outskirts of Niseko, a popular ski resort near Mount Yōtei. The house forms part of an existing development of

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Angular tree-like columns form structure of Kensuke Watanabe’s Y-house

by Jessica Jones

Clusters of diagonal columns splay out like tree branches inside this house completed by Japanese architect Kensuke Watanabe in the seaside city Kamakura. Named after the initial of its owners, the 144-square-metre Y-house was designed by Watanabe’s Tokyo-based studio for a couple and their three children. Intended to reference surrounding trees, the house’s structure features several sets

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Yoshiyasu Mizuno uses sharply angled roof to disguise scale of Terada House

A steep wooden roof covers the staggered levels of this family house in the Japanese city of Fujieda by architect Yoshiyasu Mizuno, concealing its full scale from certain angles. Designed for a couple and their two children in Japan’s Shizuoka Prefecture, Terada House occupies a square-shaped plot that abuts an existing residence. From the street the house appears to have a three

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Kubota Architect Atelier combines delicately tapered surfaces with sturdy concrete walls for FU House

Three L-shaped structures with wafer-thin edges wrap around concrete and glass walls at this house in the Japanese city of Shunan. Kubota Architect Atelier, which is based in the nearby city of Iwakuni in Japan’s Yamaguchi Prefecture, designed the property for a site less than a kilometre from the Seto Inland Sea. This area of Japan is

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Dormer windows protrude from mono-pitched roof of House in Tokushima

A group of dormers are set into the sloping roof of this house in Tokushima by Japanese studio FujiwaraMuro Architects, enabling daylight to reach rooms raised above a protective grassy bank. FujiwaraMuro Architects designed the home for a couple who wanted enough space to comfortably accommodate their young family alongside a home office. The house is situated on

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Tokyo home by Fujiilab comprises cluster of protruding white boxes

The staggered stack of boxes that form this family home in central Tokyo contain a set of spiralling, interconnected rooms. The house was designed for Daisuke Ibano, a member of the team at local architecture office Fujiilab, whose founder Ryosuke Fujii worked on the project with Ibano and architect Satoshi Numanoi. Ibano had previously been living

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Jun Igarashi uses plywood boxes to separate studio from home for Japanese painter

A cluster of timber-clad boxes are set at varying angles to ensure optimal daylight reaches the interior of this house and artist’s studio in the Japanese town of Oasa. Architect Jun Igarashi gave the project the name Bending House because of its irregular floorplan, which twists and folds along a plot in a residential neighbourhood. Igarashi said the main reason

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Japanese houses by Kenzo Tange, Toyo Ito and Atelier Bow-Wow showcased in MAXXI exhibition

The house Kenzo Tange designed for himself, a U-shaped residence by Toyo Ito and Atelier Bow-Wow’s house-cum-studio are all on show as part of an exhibition about Japan’s post-war houses at the MAXXI museum in Rome. Covering the period following the second world war to modern day, The Japanese House: Architecture & Life after 1945 showcases over 80 of Japan’s single-family

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“Megaphone-shaped” holiday home in Japan prioritises garden views

This holiday home by Japanese studios Taku Sakaushi Architects and OFDA has a tapered form that broadens towards a garden, but narrows where it meets a road, creating a secluded getaway in Karuizawa. The site is hemmed on its northern edge by a street and by neighbouring properties on its other sides, so Taku Sakaushi and OFDA tried to

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1100 Architect elevates concrete house above a bluff on a tiny Japanese island

This beachside house on Japan’s Ikema Island is perched on a concrete base to ensure the living spaces inside enjoy an optimal view of the East China Sea. The holiday home was designed by New York- and Frankfurt-based firm 1100 Architect for a plot on the 2.6-square-kilometre dot of land, which is connected to the

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Chunky concrete staircase spirals through House in Akitsu by Kazunori Fujimoto

A concrete staircase spirals between the austere concrete floors of this house designed by Kazunori Fujimoto Architect & Associates for a seaside spot in Japan’s Hiroshima Prefecture. The 92.5-square-metre residence named House in Akitsu is located on a small peninsula near the city of Higashihiroshima, where it faces the scenic Seto Inland Sea. Two concrete cubes intersect to

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Graphic designer’s home and studio in Tokyo includes cat walkway

Tokyo-based studio Do Do has designed this house and studio for a graphic designer and his wife, and created a special elevated pathway for their pet cat. The two-storey residence named House-Is is clad in black corrugated metal and occupies a small plot of land in Tokyo’s Koto-ku district. Do Do was asked to include a studio space, as well as playful

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TT Architects transforms furniture factory into family home in Japan

by Jessica Jones

TT Architects has converted an old furniture factory in the Japanese city of Okayama into a cedar-and steel-clad home for a carpenter and his family. The two-storey gabled building was previously used to store raw materials for a made-to-order furniture company. Local studio TT Architects transformed the upper floor into a living space with a balcony, and

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Elevated terraces create outdoor space for land-locked house in Tokyo by Front Office

A roof terrace, balconies and an external staircase maximise outdoor space for this overlooked house in Tokyo designed by Japanese studio Front Office. The Tokyo office designed the 120-square-metre Oyamadai House for a site in the city’s Setagaya neighbourhood, which is hemmed in on all sides by existing housing. Rather than building walls to create privacy, the clients decided

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Tokyo house designed by Satoru Hirota Architects to offer residents maximum privacy

A multi-layered facade creates extra privacy for the residents of this Tokyo house designed by local firm Satoru Hirota Architects (+ slideshow). The site is located in one of the many densely packed neighbourhoods of the Japanese capital so, like many local residents building new homes, the clients requested a house closed off from the busy surroundings. To More

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Kenta Eto completes house with sliced-away corner in Japan

The corner appears to have been chopped off this house in Japanese city Oita, revealing a tree growing behind the building’s walls (+ slideshow). Designed by locally based architect Kenta Eto, OJI House is a two-storey residence at the junction between two roads, located in a residential neighbourhood outside the city centre. Eto wanted to give the clients More

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Wooden boxes define rooms and mezzanines in Loft House by CAPD

Japanese studio CAPD has used large wooden boxes to created rooms and mezzanine floors within a house in Tokushima Prefecture (+ slideshow). The local architects designed the 92-square-metre house to look like a “big box”, giving it simple grey corrugated metal walls and a flat roof. Inside, the rectangular plan is divided up with plywood partitions to create More

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Apollo Architects completes earthquake-resistant house with a hat-like roof

A pointy wooden roof tops this concrete house in Tokyo, which led Apollo Architects & Associates to name the building Hat. The three-storey house is located in Shinjuku ward, an area where the Japanese architects claim you can find “the remnants of the good old days of Tokyo”. Their challenge was to develop a design that responds to the More

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Muji to test prefab house by letting a competition winner live in it for free

by Rima Sabina Aouf

Japanese design brand Muji has revealed the prototype for its latest prefab house, which it will test by having a competition winner move in rent-free for two years (+ movie). Located in the seaside city of Kamakura in Japan’s Kanagawa Prefecture, the ready-constructed dwelling is named the Window House after the assortment of frameless openings More

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House in Mikage by Sides Core contrasts white surfaces with exposed wooden beams

by Anna Winston

Osaka studio Sides Core has created a house in Kobe, conceived as a series of simple wooden containers (+ slideshow). Sides Core founders Sohei Arao and Sumiko Arao were asked to create House in Mikage for a family with a young child, having designed a beauty salon for the same couple 15 years ago. The More

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Uji House by Alts Design Office features a deliberately complex layout

Wooden crosses mark the entrances to this house in Japan, which features an intentionally complicated layout designed by Alts Design Office to create more privacy for residents (+ slideshow). Called Uji House, the two-storey, 103-square-metre property provides a home for a family living on the outskirts of Kyoto. Locally based Alts Design Office designed the house to be as inward-facing More

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Four-metre-wide house built in Tokyo by Atelier HAKO Architects

Atelier HAKO Architects has squeezed a three-storey house onto a four-metre-wide site in Tokyo, suggesting that skinny houses are still the rage in Japan (+ slideshow). The Japanese firm was tasked with creating a family home on the narrow site, located in the city’s Shibuya ward. To achieve this, architects Yukinobu Nanashima and Tomomi Sano planned a 70-square-metre building that More

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Tea room and veranda provide socialising space in Katsutoshi Sasaki’s Wengawa House

Translucent curtains surround a mezzanine tea room in the heart of this home, designed by Katsutoshi Sasaki + Associates for a retired couple in Japan’s Aichi Prefecture (+ slideshow). The Japanese practice designed Wengawa House for a husband and wife in their 60s within a quiet residential area of Anjo. The 97-square-metre house is surrounded by a wooden veranda and More

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Jérémie Souteyrat photographs 20 contemporary Japanese houses and their owners

This series of images by photographer Jérémie Souteyrat captures the everyday activities of people living in contemporary Japanese houses (+ slideshow). Entitled Japan, Archipelago of the House, the photography series features 20 contemporary houses designed by Japanese architects. The houses featured were all built between 1993 and 2013, and include projects by Shigeru Ban, Yasushi Horibe, Atelier Bow Wow and Mikan. More

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Alts Design Office uses arches and curves throughout Outsu House in Japan

Arched openings and curved walls feature throughout this compact family home in Japan, designed by architecture studio Alts Design Office to make the interior feel more cosy (+ slideshow). Named Outsu House, the two storey-property provides a home for a couple and their young daughter in Otsu, Shiga Prefecture. An angular roof gives the building an asymmetric profile. More

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Hiroki Tominaga Atelier completes Japanese retirement home featuring a huge dormer window

An oversized dormer window extends from the asymmetric roof of this house designed by architects Hiroki Tominaga and Yae Fujima for an elderly couple in Japan’s Gifu Prefecture (+ slideshow). The 66-square-metre wooden house is designed by Tokyo-based Hiroki Tominaga Atelier to replace an existing house on the suburban street. The architects wanted to continue the line of the More

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Gandare house by Ninkipen! has a metal skin that appears to peel up

Japanese architect Ninkipen! has completed a house in Osaka Prefecture, featuring a metal surface that appears to be peeling up from the structure (+ slideshow). Located in Neyagawa, Gandare is a narrow three-storey house slotted in between existing buildings in a busy residential neighbourhood. Unlike its more traditional neighbours, the 88-square-metre residence has a simple rectilinear form with a flat More

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Mirrors and white walls draw light through House in Okazaki by Kazuki Moroe Architects

by Anna Winston

This house in Japan features bright white walls and mirrored surfaces inside and out to make the most of the surrounding greenery and natural light (+ slideshow). Kazuki Moroe arranged the house in Okazaki, Aichi prefecture, to respond to the layout of the site, which at 227 square metres is larger than many in Japan’s More

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Tetsuo Yamaji builds “a non-mass-produced house with mass-produced components”

For this house on the outskirts of Tokyo, Japanese architect Tetsuo Yamaji aimed to create a unique building using mass-produced components (+ slideshow). Yamaji – who recently set up his own studio after a stint in Kengo Kuma’s office – wanted the Saitama property to take advantage of the benefits of prefabrication, but to also cater to the More

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Hitotomori completes small house with a custom-made plywood interior

A wooden structure and hand-built joinery are left exposed throughout the interior of this compact house in Osaka Prefecture, Japan, by architecture studio Hitotomori (+ slideshow). Hitotomori collaborated with fellow studio Hane-Kenchiku-Koubou on T-intersection Fence House, which provides a home for a family of four on a site in Matsubara flanked by three other properties. In response to this hemmed-in More

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Twin micro homes by S Plus One are both finished in different woods

Architecture studio S Plus One has built a pair of matching micro homes in a Japanese village, one clad in cedar and the other clad with pine. S Plus One principal Yumiko Sakano was commissioned by the local government of Tabayama, a mountain village two-hours drive west of Tokyo, to create the pair of starter homes. The aim is to encourage More

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Atelier Kukka’s House U stands beside a cherry blossom tree in Tokyo

Red cedar provides a golden-hued exterior for this small gabled house, designed by local studio Atelier Kukka for a Tokyo street featuring a cherry blossom tree (+ slideshow). The 67-square-metre House U provides a home for a couple in their 40s. Their brief to Atelier Kukka founder Maki Okubo was for a simple but impressive-looking building that frames views More

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John Pawson completes bright white holiday home on Japan’s Okinawa island

This clifftop holiday home by British designer John Pawson presents white windowless facades to its guests, but at the rear large windows and a roof terrace face towards the sea (+ slideshow). Pawson’s London-based studio designed Okinawa House for a family who spend most of the year in Tokyo, but want to escape to the island of Okinawa during summer and winter holidays. More

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T Weekend Residence by Process5 Design lets residents dine and bathe in sea breeze

Osaka studio Process5 Design created this weekend retreat in western Japan to accommodate activities that are usually impossible in a city house (+ slideshow). Named T Weekend Residence, the three-storey house offers residents various spots to read or dine amid a cool sea breeze, and even allows them to bathe with a view of rolling hills and a wide-stretching coastline. “It is a More

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Gaze house in Japan also contains a gallery for displaying the client’s art collection

Apollo Architects & Associates has completed a top-heavy building in Japan’s Aichi Prefecture containing both an art gallery and a family residence (+ slideshow). Located south of Nagoya in Obu, the three-storey property is named Gaze. It is designed by the Japanese firm to house a small contemporary art gallery on the lower level, with two More

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Tatami mats create gridded layout for Kenrak Tokmoto’s Inari House

Traditional Japanese floor mats define the proportions of this house in Niigata, designed by Tokmoto Architectures Room as a strict grid of squares (+ slideshow). Tatami mats have been commonly used as a flooring surface in Japanese houses for centuries, but local architect Kenrak Tokmoto has taken a step further by designing every room of More

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All-encompassing roof frames terraces for Suppose Design Office’s House in Utsunomiya

A metal roof completely surrounds this house by Japanese studio Suppose Design Office, sheltering terraces and a garden so that residents can use these spaces all year round (+ slideshow). Located in Tochigi Prefecture, House in Utsunomiya is covered in clad in strips of white-painted Galvalume – a coated steel sheeting – and lined in Japanese cedar wood. Its huge roof More

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Suppose Design Office hides garden beneath oversized shingle roof of House in Anjo